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George Fox
George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.
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George Fox emphasizes the importance of keeping meetings in the power of the Lord God, encouraging believers not to quench the spirit or despise prophesying. He urges them to maintain their testimony in both public and private settings, allowing even the youngest or seemingly insignificant individuals to speak out for the truth. Fox warns against idleness and neglect of duty, highlighting the tendency for idle individuals to gossip and judge others within the community.
Epistle 296
Friends,—All keep your meetings in the power of the Lord God, that hath gathered you; and none to quench the spirit, nor despise prophesying [1 Th 5:19f]; and so keep up your testimony in public and private. Let not the mouths of babes and sucklings [Psa 8:2] be stopped, nor the seed in males or females; but all be valiant for the truth upon the earth [Jer 9:3]. . . . And so that none may stand out of the vineyard idle [Mat 20:3,6], and out of service, and out of their duty; for such will talk and tattle, and judge with evil thoughts of what they in the vineyard say and do. . . . <46> . . . G. F.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.